CS Lab Hours

The main computing lab for the CS Department is located at 730 Commonwealth Avenue on the third floor in room 302. The building is located at the intersections of Commonwealth Avenue and Saint Mary’s Street. The BUild Lab and CVS occupy the first floor. BU refers to this building as the Engineering Annex (EMA).

There are three entrances to the building. The first entrance is located next to the Pavement Coffeehouse. The second entrance is located on Saint Mary’s Street where the BUild Lab ends. The third entrance is located on the second floor garage. Elevator access is only available through the entrance next to Pavement.

Lab resources

The main lab is comprised of 30 Windows workstations and 30 Linux workstations.

Also available to students are the Linux servers csa1.bu.edu, csa2.bu.edu, and csa3.bu.edu. These servers are available for remote logins, and can be used for Linux programming assignments, accessing data on the department’s fileservers, or other general-purpose uses.

Hours of operation

During the fall and spring semesters, the lab is open during the following hours:

Monday and Wednesday: 11:30 a.m.–midnight

Tuesday and Thursday: 9 a.m.–midnight

Friday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Sunday: 10 a.m.–midnight

During the summer term, the lab is open the following hours:

Monday–Thursday: 9 a.m.–8 p.m.

Friday–Sunday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

The lab is closed during all BU scheduled holidays and snow emergencies. The lab is also closed when classes are not in session.

Getting a CS account

CS accounts are available to all students who are taking CS classes through the College of Arts & Sciences, and students majoring or minoring in computer science. In order to get a CS account you will need to go to the CS lab at 730 Commonwealth Avenue, room 302.

The first step in creating a CS account is to run the CS WebNew application on one of the Linux systems in the lab. The Terminal Assistants on duty will provide instructions for doing this. Once this is done, it may take up to five minutes for your account to become active.

Instructions are available at the Terminal Assistant (TA) desk in the front of the lab. Please see the TAs if you have any problems creating or using your new CS account.

Tutoring

The CS Department does not provide tutoring for students needing additional assistance. Below is additional information for those seeking tutoring services: